004 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR, 



The illustration on i)age 601 will give an idea of the excellence of these 

 cuttle, even fifty years ago. Since that time they have been much 

 imi)roved and only lack size to cause them to be more generally bred ir 

 the great grazing districts of the United States. 

 Vn. The Herefords. 



The Herefords are Middle-Horns, and have many of the characteris- 

 tics of the Devons to which they are, without doubt, allied. They have 

 long been known and highly esteemed in England. Within the last thirty 

 years they have been bred to such perfection that they compete with the 

 Short-Horns in the prize fairs of England and the United States, and 

 carry off honors with the best of them. Of this breed, as they wer'. 

 known in the early ptvit of the century, Youatt says : "The Hereford 

 white-faced breed, with the exception of a very few Alderney and Dur- 

 ham cows, have almost exclusive possession of the county of Hereford. 

 The Hereford oxen are considerably larger than the Devons. They are^ 

 usually of a darker red ; some of them are brown, and even yellow, and/ 

 a few are brindled ; but they are principally distinguished by their whitd 

 faces, throats and bellies. In a few the white extends to the shoulders 

 The old Herefords were brown or red-brown, Avith not a spot of white 

 about them. It is only within the last fifty or sixty years that it has 

 been the fashion to breed for white faces. Whatever may be thought of 

 the change of color, the present breed is certainly far superior to the old 

 one. The hide is considerably thicker than that of the Devon. Com- 

 pared with the Devons, they are shorter in the leg, and also in the car- 

 cass ; higher, and broader and heavier in the chine ; rounder and wider 

 across the hips, and better covered with fat: the thigh fuller and more 

 muscular, and the shoulders larger and coarser. 



"If it were not for the white face, and somewhat larger head and 

 thicker neck, it would not at all times be easy to distinguish between a 

 heavy Devon and a light Hereford. Their white faces may probably be 

 traced to a cross with their not distant relations, the Montgomeries. 



"The Hereford cow is apparently a very inferior animal. Not only is 

 she no milker, but even her form has been sacrificed by the breeder. 

 Hence the Hereford cow is comparatively small and delicate, and some 

 would call her ill-made. She is very light-fleshed when in -'onimon con- 

 dition, and beyond that, while she is breeding, she is not suffered to pro- 

 '^eed ; but when she is actually put up for fattening, she spreads out, and 

 accumulates fat at a most extraordinary rate." 



The illustration on page 605 is a good picture of the Hereford bull of 

 forty years ago. The reader Avould scarcely recognize the Hereford of 

 1907 as the same breed described by Youatt, so much have they been 

 improved. 



